Raleigh, North Carolina

Yes, I am back in the land of the free, the home of the brave, the US of A. Without going into too much boring detail, it is very nice to be able to see friends and family again, to speak a language I understand, and to sleep in a bed with clean sheets. At the request of my Aunt Sue, I am trying to make up a "Best/Worst Travels" List. I'll add on to it as I remember things. Important things (aka, food) first:

1. Best/Worst Meal
Best: red pork curry with rice at some little Thai restaurant in Pai, Thailand. It's killing me that I can't remember the name of this place!! This curry was so insanely good!
Runner-ups: the clear soup with pork, shrimp, and tofu at Chote Chitr in Bangkok; vegetable laap in Moung Ngoi, Laos; sticky rice with mango at any food stall in Bangkok; fried shrimp with fresh green peppercorns in Kampot, Cambodia.

Worst: Noodle soup in Luang Prabang, Laos that gave me food poisoning.
Runner-up: Beef lop lak at Blissful Guesthouse in Kampot that gave me slightly less bad food poisoning.

2. Best/Worst Drink
Best: a tie between Beer Lao and Lao coffee! Beer Lao is a really crisp, refreshing beer that goes well with spicy foods and hot summer nights...too bad the only place you can drink it is in Laos! Lao coffee is crazy strong and always comes mixed with condensed, sweetened milk. Best drunk iced. Like a frappacino, but 10,000 times more delicious.

Worst: coconut water straight from the coconut. Everyone but me seems to love it. It has a funny, nutty, hard to describe taste that I really did not enjoy.

3. Best/worst snack food:
Best: another tie, this time between fresh fruit and deep-fried, salted peanuts in Thailand. mmm...addictive.

Worst: the deep-fried cockroaches for sale in the markets in Asia. I've been told they taste like french fries, but no...just no. i wasn't able to get up the nerve to eat these babies.

4. Best/Worst Overall Experience
Best: Climbing solo to Mueller Hut in Aoraki National Park in New Zealand. This was a fairly tough, steep 4 hour climb that I definitely wouldn't have had the confidence to do had I not been hiking all around NZ the previous month. I slept overnight in Mueller Hut and got to experience a gorgeous sunset and sunrise over Mt. Aoraki and several glaciers. It was incredibly beautiful and felt so removed from present-day life. A great way to cap off my visit to New Zealand.
Runners-up: Visiting Jacinta and her family at their farm in Coragulac, Australia; seeing Angkor Wat in Cambodia; caring for elephants in Thailand; hiking the 3 day Tongariro Crossing and climbing Mt. Ngauruhoe in New Zealand.

Worst: I really didn't have any bad experiences on my trip - didn't get seriously ill, never had anything stolen, never got really lost. Even when I lost my camera and all my memory cards, it was all returned to me! But for sheer annoyance, getting stranded in Agnes Water, Australia during the rainy season was the worst! I almost missed my flight to New Zealand and screwed up the whole trip!

...and that's all I can think of tonight. more later!